FAQ 6: how often should I post to Instagram?

Do you want to maintain a presence, engage your audience, or grow your account?

This post is the latest in a series that addresses the questions I’m asked most frequently about Instagram and other social media (always with the caveat that these answers are broad brush, and can vary significantly from person to person).

For the other posts in the series, click here. If you have a question you’d like me to address, go ahead and drop it in the comments at the bottom of the page.

I feel like I have to start with a disclaimer about this title: I have an aversion to the idea of ‘should'.

When friends were having babies, my number one piece of advice was to steer a wide berth around anyone who made it sound like there is only one way to do anything, and a non-exhaustive list of things I’ve been told I should do/ like that I really don’t includes:

• baths

• spas

• ice-skating

• massages

• skin care routines

• making my children share

So, even though I’m going to make some suggestions about how you might think about your posting frequency, these might not be relevant to everyone. As always - take what works for you and leave the rest!

Broadly speaking I think of posting frequency in three different ‘modes’ and which one is applicable to you will depend largely on the ‘season’ you find yourself in.

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Mode 1: Maintenance Mode

Maintenance Mode is for when life is even busier than usual.

Between unpaid work, paid work, and writing, it stands to reason there may be times when you haven’t got time to create posts. When this happens though, DON’T DISAPPEAR. There is a big difference between taking a planned, conscious break, and just not showing up. The former has intentions and boundaries, the latter will probably just make you feel a bit crappy.

You can still stay in touch with your existing audience by posting daily(ish) Stories, and 1-2 grid posts per week. You will almost-certainly sacrifice visibility and growth in this mode BUT this can be a good time to test some more playful, personal content and get to know your audience a little more.

CAVEAT: when you’re in maintenance mode, how much time are you spending scrolling? If you want to find and engage with more potential readers, you don’t want to stay in maintenance mode forever, and scrolling is the ANATHEMA to strategic Instagram use.

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Mode 2: Engagement Mode

Engagement Mode is for when you’ve got a little more time to create content, or you’ve decided to swap out some scroll time for content creation.

Engagement mode is all about getting to know your existing audience and cultivating the conversations and reciprocal sharing that will develop their interest in your writing.

To generate this kind of engagement, you should aim to post daily(ish) stories that give a flavour of your day-to-day, or perhaps expand further on something you’ve posted to your grid.

2-3 grid posts per week is appropriate for this mode. To encourage engagement use static posts with a caption, or carousel posts, to tell personal stories that are relevant to your book/ writing.

Don’t forget that the more engagement your content receives, the more signals the algorithm receives that your content is offering value. This then increases the likelihood that the algorithms will push your posts out to new audiences: gunning for engagement can actually have a halo effect on your account’s growth.

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Mode 3: Growth Mode

Growth Mode is when you’re building your initial audience to engage with over your shared interests, or perhaps you’re building momentum towards publication and want to spread the word that your book is coming.

This involves daily(ish) Stories, 3-5 grid posts per week, including Reels and collaborative Lives.

Reels are one of the best ways for new people to discover your account as they appear in two feeds: the Home feed (as suggested posts), and the Reels feed (which is algorithmically-determined, unless you turn it off!).

Think of your Reels as ‘trailers’ for your writing and use them to communicate the themes, tropes, or big questions that you write about, that are what your ideal reader is looking for.

A great example of this is this reel from Kerry Chaput where she literally spells out what her reader is looking for in two shots and approx six seconds:

You don’t even have to show your face in these ‘trailer’ reels if you don’t want to, as this example from Amanda Auler shows.

The idea with Reels is that you are trying to pique a ‘cold’ audience’s interest. These are people who have never heard of you so how are you going to attract them to look at your account?

Attracting the right audience is crucial to the effectiveness of your Instagram activity. You shouldn’t be trying to win over all the people on the internet, you’re looking to find and attract the right people for your book.

Another great way to do this is to collaborate on a Live chat or interview with a fellow writer or expert in the same space that you’re writing in. Lots of writers find the prospect of showing up on Instagram unscripted, with the possibility of technological disaster looming over you, utterly terrifying, but for most people, like most things, it is something you can get used to.

The benefits of LIVES on Instagram are threefold: you’re providing something of interest to your ideal reader; you’re introducing another writer or expert to your audience; AND you are being introduced to their audience.

Because I know going LIVE is a big deal for lots of you though, I’ve created a Writer’s Guide to Going Live which you can download for FREE by signing up to my monthly round-up email list:

There is no one answer to the question of how often you ‘should’ post on Instagram but one thing I can promise you is that it does not have to be every day!

I suggest you reflect on what you want to achieve with your Instagram, how much time you can realistically commit to creating content, and use that personal information, alongside my recommendations, to guide you.

FINALLY, remember, you can change gears at any time - you don’t have to post 5 times a week forever! You could commit to Growth Mode for a month, followed by a month in Engagement Mode, followed by a month in Maintenance Mode and then back to the beginning… or perhaps you could use school term dates and holidays to inform when you’re in what mode (this is my general approach).

Allow your use of Instagram to flux as your life fluxes and you will (hopefully) find it becomes a much more sustainable way to find new readers and promote your work.

Photo by Lubomirkin on Unsplash